Editorial: Entsorga goes to China
(01.06.2010) "Together' - this was the title of the very first editorial of the ENTSORGA magazine, dated October 1982 and written by Alfred Strothe, who was the publisher in Hannover. Today, amidst the current upheaval, the fierce climate debate and an increasingly apparent shortage of raw materials, the lines which were written back then are certainly worth reading today. Despite having been written all those years ago, the text would be perfectly applicable to the ENTSORGA magazine in 2010: "The slogan "waste is just raw materials in the wrong place' increasingly defines the work of the modern future-oriented public cleansing sector', is just one of the comments written back then. "The recycling of waste is gaining centre stage and the term "recycling', which has become a fashionable word to use, is nothing more than a form of waste disposal which conserves resources.†This was written in 1982 and is still relevant today.
The first issue of Entsorga appeared at the Entsorga Trade Fair in 1982, with ideological support for the event coming from the Verband Kommunaler Städtereinigungsbetriebe or VKS (the German Association of Municipal Waste Management and Public Cleansing Companies) and the Verband Privater Städtereinigungsbetriebe or VPS (the German Association of Private Waste Management and Public Cleansing Companies). "How else can all arising problems be overcome, if not through joint endeavours and on a partnership basis?' explained none other than Gustav Dieter Edelhoff, who was President of the VPS at that time. "The Entsorga magazine will not report in an uncritical manner. On the contrary! In addition to the exchange of ideas, information and expertise, the priority tasks of the editorial team also include presenting political and economic contexts and, if necessary, commenting on them in a critical manner,†to quote Alfred Strothe once again. And this is also how the role of our magazine was perceived at the Federal Environment Ministry in Berlin: "The Entsorga magazine and the Entsorga Trade Fair have established themselves in the German waste management industry as permanent key figures in a future-oriented economic sector,' explained last year’s Federal Minister for the Environment Sigmar Gabriel in conversation with the ENTSORGA magazine and in his opening greeting. "Over the years, the Entsorga magazine has become one of the most important sources of information - and certainly many people could no longer imagine being without it," comments Prof. Dr. Andreas Troge, President of the Federal Environment Agency until 2009.
The Entsorga magazine, which is the top-selling magazine in the entire environment sector, has become the mouthpiece of the entire German waste disposal sector. It picks up on ideas from all leading waste disposal associations and central organisations of the waste disposal industry, is represented at all major national and international industrial trade fairs and knows how to set a course and take a stance at conferences, symposia and conferences by contributing to the discussions.
The themes are wide-ranging: including in the meantime all aspects of German and European environmental policy, all aspects of waste management through to the recovery and disposal of waste, recycling, the treatment of drinking water and waste water, soil decontamination and the remediation of contaminated sites, as well as air quality management both indoors and outdoors.
Together with its extensive Internet presence (www.entsorga-magazin.de), the very latest industry reports which appear on the website, a comprehensive calendar of events and a complete archive of texts, the printed edition is the necessary link in a comprehensive sector-related information service, which is being effectively and necessarily extended by the Chinese edition.
The magazine has for many years been published by the Deutscher Fachverlag based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and the Chinese edition represents a logical step towards internationalisation, thereby taking into account the demands of a global market with worldwide problems relating to environmental management and waste management. The approach must be global if problems are to be addressed and solutions found. The path to China represents the first and most significant step here. China is no longer on the threshold of becoming a highly mechanized, modern industrial country, but has already progressed beyond this. The fact that environmental problems are consequently arising, which have taken on global dimensions, is obvious. This is also taken into account in the plans made by the Chinese government with its enormous investment programme in the field of environmental protection. German and European companies and research institutes are making their specialist expertise and their economic power available here in order to solve these problems together with Chinese partners in industry and management. This is the very first Chinese issue of our magazine and with these Chinese editions ENTSORGA magazine wishes to contribute to the joint success - for the sake of the environment and of environmentally-friendly technological progress in Asia. "ENTSORGA goes to China' - the publishers and editorial team would like to wish all readers and all those interested in our publication, an informative read.
Author: Martin Boeckh (Editor-in-Chief)
Foto: Privat
